Allow Me to Introduce: Prequel to "The Visitor"
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Stargate SG1 or its characters. I do not own the idea of the Q species, that right is owned by the writers of Star Trek: the Next Generation. I do own the character of Nicole, however, please do not use her without my prior permission.
Chapter One
The house was dark and the absurd toothpick the paranoid alien had placed on the inside of the door to detect intruders remained undisturbed. The small woman within the room with curly red hair sighed impatiently and tried to perch her body onto a nearby table, wincing when her rear landed on a toy ray gun. Not that it had been painful – she hadn't experienced physical pain in over a century.
Finally there was a rapping against the door, followed by a woman's voice, "Hello?" Then there was an almost inaudible clicking sound penetrating the silence.
"At last," thought the woman in the house, a smile finding its way onto her face. Someone outside was picking the lock. The door opened, spilling sunlight onto the rug, its rays catching in the snow globe near the window, the one that held a scene of tiny spacemen greeting green aliens onto their planet. And if the woman waiting within the room filled with science fiction paraphernalia hadn't been invisible to mortal eyes at the time, she would have been spotted by the three curious Air Force employees who entered.
"Oh boy," the first one whispered as she took her first steps inside, followed closely by two men. This woman was a good five inches taller than the one who stood in the room unseen, and she had very short blonde hair. It was a military cut, that much was plain to the red haired woman. The clothes of the taller woman, however, did not give away her employment to the military, being jeans, a matching jacket and a bright orange turtleneck.
"Something tells me we don't need to worry about this guy," the man who entered after the woman stated. The invisible red head sucked in her breath at the sight of him. He was tall, with dark brown hair and glasses, behind which the woman knew were beautiful ocean colored eyes. She could tell he had rippling muscles to go with his broad shoulders, even though they were hidden by a black jacket and a shirt that matched his eyes. Yes, this was a handsome man.
The man who had entered last was silent, his chocolate eyes surveying the room with interest – and the unseen observer was almost certain there were traces of eye shadow on his eyelids, despite the dim light and the brimmed hat that cast a small shadow over his eyes. She knew, however, the hat's true purpose was the cover the gold tattoo that had been emblazoned onto his forehead years earlier. He, too, wore dark clothing, an obvious attempt to be inconspicuous.
"Except for the fact that he happens to be very close to the truth," the blonde answered the handsome man with glasses as the three of them began looking around the house. She stopped beside a small grey alien with a big head that was resting upon a table. "He looks familiar," the Air Force woman said simply and moved away to another table filled with different objects to study.
At that moment, an unusual sound caused the blonde woman and the man with glasses to turn toward their companion, both a little startled. The man with the hat had picked up the toy gun and pressed the trigger, causing the red lights to flare and a siren-like sound to fill the otherwise quiet room. "It would appear this weapon is ineffective," the man stated, apparently very serious. The red haired woman giggled and noticed the blonde woman give her friend's statement a small smile.
The handsome man made his way to the kitchen, opening the shades for better light and pulling cabinet doors toward him peering inside each one. "Oh, hello," he commented when the sight of a great number of medicine bottles greeted him. "Sam, you're going to want to take a look at this," he called to the blonde still in the dark room lined with green glow-in-the-dark stars.
She went to see what her friend was about, leaving the tall black man still playing with the fake gun. "Whoa, that's quite a collection," she commented, her eyes wide when she took in the sight her friend had discovered. "Tranquilizers, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, looks like our friend here was being treated for a number of psychotic problems."
"Yeah, why doesn't that surprise me?" the man beside her asked as he turned to look at the collection of alien paraphernalia in the room behind them. He took off toward it, leaving Sam alone in the kitchen to examine the pills in her glove covered hand.
The red haired woman finally lost her patience. Not having much to begin with may have been a large part of the problem, but in any case she figured she had waited long enough. She snapped her fingers and in a flash of brilliant, blinding white light she made her presence known to the three intruders.
There was an immediate reaction to her self-disclosure. The blonde and the big black man immediately pulled out weapons and trained them on the new arrival, the black man's clicking audibly into firing position. She had expected as much, of course, knowing these people were part of the military and were trained to be cautious. They were probably also trained to expect the unexpected but she bet they probably didn't expect her to appear out of thin air.
"Identify yourself," the man with the hat commanded in a low voice.
The woman slowly circled the three of them the best she could in the cramped room. When she came to a stop, she smiled softly and commented almost to herself, "None of your pictures do you justice. Especially not yours." With the last remark, she motioned to the man with the glasses, who cleared his throat and directed his attention to Sam.
"How did you get here?" the blonde woman asked, motioning with her gun, her eyes drifting to the ceiling momentarily before focusing once again on the stranger. "Was that some kind of beaming technology?"
The woman in question laughed and shook her head, her curls bouncing wildly, "You humans think in such three-dimensional terms. Sometimes it's a wonder to me how you manage in such a five-dimensional universe."
Brown eyebrows descended toward eyeglasses, black ones lifted, blonde ones dipped inward toward her nose, confused expressions transforming the faces before the unaffected red haired woman. The man with glasses stepped forward and replied, "Excuse me? Did you say five-dimensional?"
She waved him off, green eyes rolling, and answered in a nonchalant tone, "Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm not supposed to say those kinds of things. Something about preserving the timeline or some such nonsense."
"You're from the future?" the blonde asked incredulously, her defensive position weakening slightly, her gun dipping toward the floor a little.
The smaller woman shrugged and picked up a three inch alien action figure from behind her on the desk, turning it over in her hand nervously. "Yeah, I'm a bit of a time traveler," she answered hesitantly. "And this was not at all how I imagined meeting three of the greatest heroes of all time."
"Of all time?" the handsome man asked, an embarrassed grin sneaking upward on his cheeks as he pushed his glasses over the bridge of his nose. His two companions glanced at each other and slowly lowered their weapons.
"Yeah, you – all of you – SG1, I mean – was the only thing I actually enjoyed about history class. Was more into science and engineering myself," at this, she flashed Sam a smile, then continued, "Which is ironic because now I'm more focused on history because of time traveling and all."
"So you're human?" Sam asked.
"No way in hell," the red head replied without missing a beat, apparently very opposed to the idea. "Used to be – a very long time ago."
"Used to be?" the man with glasses repeated with a puzzled expression.
The woman nodded. "Yes, used to be. Now I'm a Q – and no, you haven't heard of us before," the woman answered. "We are a species that pretty much keeps to ourselves until the twenty-fourth century. But I couldn't help but use my abilities to manipulate time and space to meet SG1."
"You can manipulate time and space?" Sam asked, looking doubtful.
"Yes, every Q can. It's part of what we are. You remember that flash earlier? That's how we get around." She flashed the man with glasses a smile. "You believe me, don't you, Daniel?"
Again he cleared his throat. "It would be nice if we knew your name."
"Oh, shit, I knew I forgot something important!" Sam and Daniel exchanged a glance, both probably making a mental note about the woman's choice in language, but otherwise didn't interrupt. "I can't believe I forgot the fracking introductions."
"Fracking?" Sam and Daniel questioned in unison.
"Alternative universe language, not important," the woman answered. "My name is Nicole, and I am originally from the twenty-fourth century. And you are Major Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. Mind if I call you Sam and Daniel?" Nicole asked but continued without waiting for a reply. "Thanks. Oh, this is so exciting!" At this point, she let out an excited squeak and clapped her hands together. The three members of SG1 glanced at each other with matching raised eyebrows.
Sam turned back to Nicole and asked carefully, "So what are you doing here?"
"Waiting to meet you, of course."
"But why here, why now? If you have the ability to travel time, why not another point in our history?"
Nicole nodded in understanding and responded, "I'm flying under the radar, trying not to get caught. If the Continuum knew I was doing this, I would be in a lot of trouble."
"The Continuum?" Daniel asked, obviously intrigued by the infrastructure of a newly discovered race.
She nodded. "They're like a body of elders. They make and enforce our laws. I'm breaking a few just by being here. That's why I started jogging Martin's memories and got him to contact Colonel O'Neill."
"You're the reason Martin Lloyd contacted us?" Sam asked, looking a little annoyed. "How exactly is that 'staying under the radar' with your elders?"
"He never knew I was here. Being a muse isn't against our laws. But allowing you to see and talk with me is." She sighed and pulled her white sleeve up as if to check a watch, but her wrist was bare save for a few random freckles. "Speaking of, it's probably time for me to get going. I've been off their radar a little too long." Replacing the sleeve, she smiled at them and continued, despite the confused looks they were giving her. "Don't worry, we'll definitely meet again. Have fun with Martin!" There was another flash of white light, and she was gone before any of them could object.
"Well, that was odd," Daniel commented to his friends, sliding his glasses off his nose and squinting at them as if they had caused him to start seeing things that weren't really there. Shaking his head, he finally decided to clean the lenses on his shirt and put them back on his face.
"Yeah," Sam replied, her own eyes still glued to the spot where their new "friend" had disappeared.
Teal'c tilted his head downward toward Daniel. "Agreed, Daniel Jackson. That encounter was most strange indeed."
Rays of sunlight streamed through the otherwise drab and colorless warehouse, illuminating the only table in the large, almost empty building. Behind this table with their backs facing the door and their hands and feet tied to the hard metal chairs sat Major Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson. With nothing but their own perception to gauge the time, the pair was uncertain for how long they had been left alone, but it felt like hours has passed without any word from their captors.
Sighing, Daniel turned to his blonde companion, who today had chosen a brilliant red collared shirt covered by a thin black business jacket. "You know, at times like this, it sure would be helpful to have a powerful being to help us out of sticky situations."
"Oh, you mean like a Q?" Sam replied coyly, definitely catching his drift.
As if on cue, a flash of light appeared before them, so bright they had to close their eyes and look away. When they looked back, they were greeted by the sight of the same red haired woman they had met the day before, this time dressed in a long flowing white Grecian robe. In her hand was an apple, one she brought up to her smiling lips while her green eyes surveyed the humans before her with interest. "You rang?" she asked before biting into the red fruit.
"Were you just in Ancient Greece?" the archeologist asked with great interest, his eyes as wide as saucers.
Nicole giggled, but Sam was not amused. "Daniel, we don't have time for that. Those men could be back at any moment."
"Ah, right," Daniel said, hurriedly asking the Q before them, "So could you get us out of here?"
If it were possible, Nicole smiled wider. "Discussing Ancient Greece with you is a pleasure I hope to someday soon enjoy. But interfering with the natural flow of events here is something I can't do."
"It's because of you we're in this mess," Sam pointed out. "The least you can do is conjure up a knife and free us from these restraints."
Nicole shook her head and placed her apple on the table, swinging her legs around so they were now dangling seductively in front of Daniel. "Sorry, no can do. I'm already on a short leash as it is with the elders. And as much as I would love to save your asses –" Pausing for a moment, she leaned over to get a better glimpse of Daniel's rear and continued off on her own little tangent, "That would be a nice ass to save –" Straightening, she looked over at Sam apologetically and said, "Sorry, Sam, I'm sure yours is nice, too, but I'm not into checking out female asses –"
"So you're saying you can't help us," Daniel interrupted, his patience wearing thin and the annoyance beginning to show.
The woman before him pouted, and folding her arms across her chest, replied in a mock hurt tone, "You don't have to get snappy about it."
"This is getting us nowhere," the man with glasses told his companion. "What do you think of those men?"
It because apparent that the restrained pair was going to ignore their visitor when Sam answered, "I don't know. I don't get this. These guys know what a symbiote is, but if they were really NID, they'd know Teal'c isn't a security threat."
"I don't know. This is why I hate working for the government. Every department has its own agenda, its own little secret," Daniel replied dismally.
"Very true, Dr. Jackson," a voice responded from the door. Sam and Daniel's head whipped around to see the owner of the voice before turning back to Nicole. She had vanished without a trace, apple and all.
"Clear the area!" Colonel Jack O'Neill yelled as he, his team, and Martin ran out of the warehouse and took flying leaps onto the hard black pavement outside. Martin landed first, followed by Jack and Sam, who landed onto her side next to her CO, Teal'c with his arm sticking out an odd angle, and finally Daniel, who flipped entirely over, narrowly missing his head, which landed in the complete opposite direction of his comrades.
Unnoticed leaning against the brown and white wall of the still standing building, Nicole cringed at the thought of the needless pain her favorite band of interstellar heroes had just endured. Snapping her fingers, she quickly eased some of it and prayed the Continuum wouldn't notice her slight slip of protocols. She then watched as they all lifted their heads in surprise, Jack and Sam regarding Martin with quiet anger written on their features.
"Well?" SG1's commander asked the paranoid alien.
Confused, Martin glanced at the device in his hands and replied, "That's weird, I'm sure this is a countdown to some kind of detonation."
Nicole laughed, causing the five people on the ground to look at the woman, who was now clad in contemporary clothes – ones not unlike the ones the blonde who was lying on the ground next to her CO was wearing. "Those were all spectacular leaps," the Q informed them lightly, offering a hand to Daniel. He ignored it but stood to his feet, wiping off his jeans as they watched the others do the same. "Oh, come on, Daniel," Nicole protested, "You can't still be upset with me. Your cute little ass got saved even without my help."
Colonel O'Neill was beside the small woman in moments. "This her?" he asked Teal'c as he looked the stranger up and down.
"Indeed, O'Neill," the Jaffa replied.
"She doesn't look like much," Jack remarked.
"Uh . . . excuse me? Can anyone tell me what's going on here? Who's she?" It was Martin, who was curious even till the end.
Jack shook his head and clapped Martin on the shoulder. "Come on, Marty, let's get you home."
